Little Soaps Satisfy Big Demand in Haiti

Non-Profit Helps Country Combat Spread of Disease With Donations of Slightly Used Soap Bars From American Hotels

(CBS)  With all this worry over the H1N1 flu virus, there's a lot of talk about hygiene. Even President Obama has urged us to wash our hands. But this simple act is a global problem when one in five people live without clean water, and 5 percent live without adequate sanitation.

It's too often the case in Haiti where a worldly offering sets off a scramble. It's not for free food or medicine but soap.

Precious here, the handouts would've been trash in the United States if not for Shawn Seipler.

"I thought there would be anxiety or desperation for it, but not nearly to the degree I just saw," Seipler told CBS News Correspondent Seth Doane.

This mission to Haiti was born almost a year ago, when Seipler and his colleague Paul Till were salesmen sporting six-figure salaries.

They got to wondering about those little bars of hotel soap, which most of us use just once.

"There are 4.6 million hotel rooms across the United States," Seipler said. "We started doing the math and figured that's a lot of soap that's being tossed out."

He estimates that's 1.5 million bars hitting American landfills every day, a number so staggering it inspired them to quit their jobs and launch a non-profit called Clean the World.

They collect soap from 80 Orlando, Fla., hotels, use restaurant steamers to remove impurities and repackage the bars for shipment. Most hotels jumped right on board.

"We had this 900 room hotel that needed a place to put its slightly used amenities," said Marshall Kelberman, director of the rooms department for Orlando's Peabody Hotel. "It just felt like it was a match made in heaven."

It's a shoestring operation with an ambitious goal.

"Yes, it's about recycling," Seipler said. "It's about preventing landfill waste … but it's also about taking those items … and handing them to people who are dying because they don't have soap."

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, disease spreads easily.

Garbage clogs gutters, fills rivers and seems to suffocate life.

Worldwide, 2 million people die every year from diarrhea, often caused by poor sanitation. Most are under the age of five, 8,000 children in Haiti alone.

Studies suggest simple hand washing could cut those deaths by up to 30 percent. But that's not as simple as it sounds.

In a market in Cap-Haitien, a woman sells soap for a little less than a dollar a bar, which doesn't sound like much, but you've got to consider that three-quarters of Haiti's population lives on less than $2 a day.

Some students here may sing about soap, but their school's headmaster says those lessons are often lost at home.

"Because it's just too expensive?" Doane asked headmaster Jayce Dortelus.

"It is; they can't afford it," Dortelus said.

So far, Clean the World has distributed 60,000 bars.

While it's only a dent, it's had a big impact on Seipler's spirit.

"It was crystal clear," Seipler said while tapping his head. "But it wasn't until we came here until it really got into the heart."

Hope by the handful in a place where just a sliver is reason to cheer.

[babsiello]

I think inovative ideas such as this are just the direction we, as US citizens should be agressivly undertaking. To think something so simple as this would be so far reaching! I used to take those bars home too, but found they just ended up accumulating and drying out, USELESS! So much better to put them to good use! BRAVO!I'm certainly going to donate!

[LHarlem]

Who fact checks your articles? "5 percent live without adequate sanitation." Really? 5%? Does that sound right to you? Try 50-60%. "one in five people live without clean water". 20%? Try 60% And once you get out of the cities those numbers sky-rocket.

It's insulting to the people of Haiti, and those here working with them, to see such poor journalism.

[chrissa3]

I have saved unused soaps over the years from hotel stays. Is there a way that people can donate these type of unused toiletry items to the people of Haiti? I did not see a link to the kind works of these gentlemen. Perhaps churches, schools, scout troops etc. could gather larger quantities to donate. Thank you very much.

[g-gfather]

The U.S.could provide all of Haiti with soap,unused,for what is spent on one Bunker-Busting-Bomb. Great-Grandfather.

[maiingan]

It's a fine thing they're doing; but when I can afford to stay in a hotel or motel, I always take with me any soaps I've opened, which would be thrown out after I left. So I have a collection of small bars of soap which are great for backpacking trips. I think this is more efficient than the resources used to clean & repackage hotel soap discards. I'd like to see some do-gooders help Haitians create a soap-making industry in their country which will produce soap the neediest Haitians can afford.

[summarex]

Wow 15 years after being "liberated" by Bill Clinton, Hatians have to make due with gifts of used soap. And to think that General Cedras was picking that country up off its knees and might have been able to fix a lot of ills had a few idiots in Washington simply kept their noses out of it. But putting their little buddy Aristide back in power was more important than the welfare of the Hatian people!

[lyndar2]

I know that people will think this action is not appropriate or sanitary but only those who can buy and own soap. I'm happy to hear that a large hotel is willing to contribute...at least they are aware of the waste. Hopefully, this will make a contribution to healthier living for those who need it.